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Gateway Portable MP3 Player

dcsmith writes "Gateway has announced the Gateway Digital Audio Player, a 1.5-ounce USB device that also provides portable storage and voice recording. The device is curently available in a 128MB model priced at $129.99, with a 256MB model priced at $169.99 scheduled to debut on 14 August." The Gateway store has a picture. No mention of DRM.

9 of 284 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Put into perspective by kmak · · Score: 4, Informative

    In fact, the Archos Jukebox records as well, and the newer versions have a little movie player!

    Ya, when I saw the specs, the first thing on my mind was, "What were they thinking?"

    Truly two years too late..

    --

    I'm not the devil.. just his advocate.
  2. NEWS FLASH! by mrpuffypants · · Score: 2, Informative

    Every company under the sun makes an el cheapo MP3 player. Even Nike!

  3. Shows up as a Drive letter by sker · · Score: 4, Informative

    The article doesn't mention DRM because there isn't any to speak of. The device shows up as a drive letter and any MP3 or WMA in the music folder is seen by the player. It doesn't even ship with any special software aside from a voice file converter and an icon editor... pretty decent.

    --
    nonsig. unsig. desig.
  4. Plenty of these... by LamerX · · Score: 4, Informative

    There are TONS of other small mp3 players like this... it's really nothing new...

    RipFlash http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000 06RVH3/104-5806291-7855108?v=glance&me=ATVPDKIKX0D ER

    Irock 520
    http://hardwarecentral.dealtime.com/dealtime2 000/R eviews/product/read_product/1,7235,3310,00.html

    Sony NW MS9
    http://sudhian.dealtime.com/xPR-Sony_NW_MS9

    The list goes on and on...

    Just search google... Like I did....

  5. old news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    pff. iRiver make pretty good little players. Take this one.

    512MB, voice & radio recording (selectable bitrate), mp3/wma/asf, just over 1 ounce, general file storage.

  6. Re:I'll take a look when... by cnkeller · · Score: 2, Informative
    Hows jogging, or any other impact sport, with your ipod?

    I've never heard my ipod skip or had a problem with it.

    I've dropped it twice on the treadmill while jogging (non-consecutively) before i bought a case for working out. Must be that huge 32meg buffer. The new ones are very light as well, though not near as light as the Gateway. I happen to wear mine around my bicep with an arm band (just un-velcro the cover) that leaves it easily accessible to switching tracks, virewing the name of a song, etc. No problems on the treadmill or the weight bench ever.

    --

    there are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots

  7. Re:looks like a repackaged muvo by nekura · · Score: 2, Informative

    The new MuVo NX also has a backlit LCD screen.

    --

    "Programming is like sex - one mistake and you'll have to support it for the rest of your life."
  8. Re:Price.... by Mikey-San · · Score: 4, Informative

    Of course not. It doesn't need to be, since it's a FireWire storage device. (It's bootable, too. Install OS X on it and watch as you can boot your Mac with it.)

    FireWire, strictly as a protocol, is much more interesting to me for a few reasons:

    1. FireWire is isochronous.
    2. FireWire is peer-to-peer, not master/slave (like USB). That means one could hook up a theoretical FireWire-eqipped TV and stream the DV footage you just shot of your day at the beach right to the screen, nothing else involved.
    3. TCP/IP communication over FireWire, because of point number 2, is much more flexible than USB. (I don't know if USB supports TCP/IP communication at all. Just guessing that it does.)
    4. FireWire can push 1.5 amps (versus less than a tenth of that for USB 2) to a device. That makes powering small notebook HDs or charging MP3 players quite easy to do.

    The only thing that sucks is when a computer manufacturer puts a 4-pin FireWire port on a machine instead of a 6-pin port. (The difference being the two pins that perform termination power transfer.) I dunno why people ship 4-pin ports on computers when a device the size of a deck of cards has a 6-pin port. Go figure.

    --
    Mikey-San
    Karma: +Eleventy billion (mostly affected by watching Celebrity Jeopardy)
  9. Re:Ok, we get it the IPOD is a great player BUT by ColdCuts · · Score: 2, Informative

    No, I got my iPod for running. The first few weeks ran with it held in my hand, and have yet to have a problem. Prior to this, I ran with a portable CD player that advertised skip protection. The CD player I could make skip, something I haven't yet been able to do with the iPod.

    Last week, I broke down and bought one of them fancy fanny packs designed for the pod. Running with that is a dream, you could forget the ipod is there if not for the headphones (and this is where you really appreciate the wired remote.)

    Could be my incredibly smooth running style, but I doubt it. The iPod is great for runners.